From Ted Talks on YouTube: “Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.”

This video starts out mild enough, but be prepared to be moved by the powerful emotion. For those who have had a stroke, you may want to share this video with those who you feel “just don’t get it” when you have tried to explain to them what is happening to you.

You might be asking: What does having a stroke have to do with the question “Who Am I?”

A simple question, but if you have been searching you know there is no simplistic answer that can fit into one sentence. Jill illustrates her experience, her unexpected jolt from her ordinary routine of daily life, in such a beautiful way that you cannot help but question your reality from yet another perspective.

It is my personal opinion that you are not learning about the world around you unless you are provoked into even more questions. Wisdom is found along the path, not in the destination.

Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

A simple statement from King David, but even Biblical commentators do not ignore it. The most profound truths can be found in a plain spoken sentence.

From John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible:

Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust For such are safe and secure in him, are possessed of all blessings of grace through him, have peace in their own souls now, and shall enjoy eternal happiness with him hereafter;

and respecteth not the proud; such as the Pharisees, and all self-righteous persons, who trust in themselves and their own righteousness, submit not to the righteousness of Christ, and despise others; to these such who trust in Christ have no respect; they neither esteem them, nor imitate them;

nor such as turn aside to lies; to idols, the lying vanities of the Gentiles; or to any doctrines injurious to the person, office, blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and grace of Christ; which are no other than lies, and which those who believe in Christ have no respect to, but abhor both them and the abettors of them.

In a world of hyperboles, it is important to remember to remain plain spoken, even if you think others ignore your quiet words. Vague and flashy people-pleasing statements are soon forgotten, or foster anger.

The simplest statements stand the test of time and have a chance as being seen as the most profound. With reflection by the listener, they do not need iteration or long winded explanations. They do not break up on the shore, but continue their journey down the stream, self-sufficient, strong and flexible.

A. Three important studies provide links between smoking and lung cancer:

1. On May 27, 1950 Journal of the American Medical Association: publishes first major study
2. In same issue, “Tobacco Smoking as a Possible Etiologic Factor in Bronchiogenic Carcinoma: A Study of 684 Proved Cases,” by Ernst L. Wynder and Evarts A. Graham is published.
3. A Sept 30 British Medical Journal, study by Richard Doll and Bradford Hill reports that heavy smokers fifty times as likely as nonsmokers to contract lung cancer

There is a wealth of information on this website and it’s easy to become sidetracked. Before diving in, it might be a good idea to read the navigation guide, which explains what structure was used to amass the available information.

Science, Tobacco & You is based on the premise that science is a learning processes that involves looking, thinking, asking, and sharing. The organization of this Website utilizes this idea.

One aspect of remote viewing is developing good habits such as consistently eliminating current distractions and foreseeing possible distractions during session. But what about when there isn’t any practical way to rid yourself of environmental distractions?

What would you do?

I began my training very close to this bell. I timed my practice sessions to just after midnight and just after noon if at all possible.

I am trained in the methods available on the Project Jedi Remote Viewing Training 4 DVD Set available at ProjectJeDi.net

Talk to the chat bot to help him learn, ask him to complete math problems or sing to you. He’s very talented, but still has a great deal to learn about human interactions. You can even tell him what kind of topics you would like him to have more knowledge about.

There was a debate in the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for some time about whether the shrinkage observed in the hippocampus — a structure involved in learning and memory — was the result of the stress or was a vulnerability factor for the disease.

We know that high levels of cortisol — a stress hormone — can kill neurons. So you could argue that the stress and stress hormones that cause PTSD could also result in the reduction in hippocampal volume. This is the so-called neurotoxicity hypothesis.

On the other hand, individuals who get PTSD could have some underlying genetic or structural susceptibility, one characteristic of which could be an already smaller hippocampus. This is the so-called vulnerability hypothesis.

The researchers followed a cohort of 15 recently diagnosed PTSD patients age 7 to 13 over the course of 12 to 18 months. They tracked the sizes of their hippocampi at the beginning and the end of the interval using MRI images and also measured their cortisol levels.

The researchers found that over the interval the sizes of the hippocampi in the patients went down.

Our results support the hypotheses that PTSD symptoms and cortisol levels at baseline are associated with changes in hippocampal volume over an ensuing 12- to 18-month interval. Specifically, we found that severity of PTSD symptoms and cortisol levels predict a reduction in hippocampal volume from baseline to follow-up when controlling for pubertal maturation and gender in children with a history of traumatic stress. This is the first longitudinal study in PTSD to document an association between hippocampal changes with PTSD symptoms and with a marker of stress, cortisol levels. These longitudinal findings help elucidate previous cross-sectional reports of smaller hippocampal volumes in PTSD populations. Our results are also in accord with animal literature reporting on the neurotoxic effects of glucocorticoids in the hippocampus. Our results stand in contrast, however, with studies identifying hippocampal volume as a vulnerability factor. Although, this study was not designed to address the vulnerability factor hypothesis, our exploratory analyses suggest that hippocampal volume was not a risk factor for development of PTSD symptoms….

Our cortisol findings address a potential mechanism by which stress can alter the hippocampus. There is substantial animal literature demonstrating the neurotoxic effects of glucocorticoid in the glucocorticoid receptor-rich hippocampus. Glucocorticoids can also exert their neurotoxicity indirectly via accumulation of extracellular glutamate. High levels of glucocorticoids have been reported in children with history of maltreatment and PTSD. Elevated cortisol levels suggest that high levels of stress lead to activation of the HPA axis and cortisol production and that this leads to hippocampal toxicity, which results in poor inhibitory activity from the hippocampus unto other centers, such as the HPA axis itself. The putative neurotoxic effects of cortisol on the hippocampus may depend on at least 3 factors: (1) the developmental stage of the structure (the hippocampus glucocorticoid receptors density may change throughout development), (2) the level and sustainability of cortisol released, and (3) the severity and/or chronicity of the stressful events.

Other studies have attempted to follow patients with PTSD, but they have been done on older patient populations that have often had PTSD for much longer. This is a confound in the ability to measure hippocampal volume changes because chronic stress may not cause changes and stress that is far removed may have given the brain time to recover.

The recognition that stress does shrink the hippocampus rather than that a small hippocampus is a susceptibility factor for PTSD may have consequences in terms of patient treatment. In theory, we would like to short circuit the shrinkage of the hippocampus by some pharmacological means, or maybe we could improve function by providing cognitive training.

Nevertheless, we are constantly being barraged by other peoples’ influences. We seek the opinions of family and friends, we are subjected to myriads of advertisements every day, and we consciously evaluate the language and actions of other people for the meaning of their intents and purposes, thus we are influenced by them. These are, for the most part, conscious influences, and a great deal of our mental, physical and emotional energy is spent in dealing with these influences every day.

.

.

Most of our daily lives is comprised of the previous decisions we have made in response to those influences. For example, do you go out the door in the morning without having brushed your teeth or showered? Probably not, because we have been influenced by society that we must take care of personal hygiene before presenting ourselves to the public. In order to deal effectively with people, therefore, we have made a decision to comply with that societal norm because the consequences of not doing so are usually undesirable.

.

We have made a lot of conscious decisions, using our free will, to these conscious influences. I myself made a conscious decision to ignore advertising long ago. I buy products and services based on other rationales than “brand name”. Nevertheless, those other rationales, whatever they be, are still influences! Price and reputation are definitely influences. Even location is an influence — I will buy this here because I don’t have the time to drive any further looking for a better bargain. Nevertheless, these are influences that we have CHOSEN to affect us.

.

Remote influencing is similar in that one transmits unconscious ideas that may influence someone else! You may or may not decide to act on impressions from a remote influencer in the same way you may or may not respond to the unconscious ideas presented from advertisements.

.

From ancient “seers” of old working for kings to influence peoples and nations, to a student visualizing the answer to that tough test question in front of him, we as humans have always used the power of our thoughts to try to get information for our benefit. The miracle is that the Matrix of all information behind all things in the universe tends to respond! But it is in the nature of the Matrix to respond…

Remote viewing is the ability to gather information about a distant or unseen target only using the natural function of the mind. It is a science which was developed and used in the US military & national security programs for intelligence gathering. Primary use for remote viewing in the early days of development was strictly military and espionage use. Common tasks were locating hostages, submarines, troop movement and terrorist operation headquarters

Remote viewing is also sometimes referred to as structured clairvoyance, trained extra-sensory perception (ESP) or sensing remote locations with the mind.

If you saw the movie called “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, you may remember that remote viewing was the primary talent of Lyn Cassady. Remote viewing is a fascinating subject, full of mysteries, so it’s no wonder Hollywood takes creative license on the topic. The actual process and training is of course much more complex than portrayed in the movies.

The real story:

The fact of the matter is, we have an abundance of proof the programs worked. Every year, for over 20 years, the remote viewing programs had to justify their continued existence to Congress. The programs had to provide evidence of their valued intelligence gathering capabilities before they could receive their funding for the next year.

Protocols and methods improved remote viewing to the point that it could no longer hide from the public eyes. Since the secrets could no longer be contained, the remote viewing programs were shut down to avoid scrutiny

A few years later we have lots of government documentation showing the program went back into active duty under other project names.

Advancements:

Through research, remote viewing has advanced in leaps and bounds since its early conception. It was discovered that we all have sensory circuits that mimic or help us interpret data from a remote target. If I were to describe a hot apple pie, with steam rising off it, you will probably remember what an apple pie is like. As you read this, memories may bring to mind the smell of hot cinnimon and tangy apples. This is your mind projecting the sensory data to your awareness. Just as you can see and smell and taste an apple pie that does not exist, just by remembering it, you can also remote view in a similar fashion.

Using the perception method of remote viewing, you can learn to virtually see, hear, smell, taste and feel something miles away using only your current God-given sensory system, attention management, pen and paper. If you have had rigorous remote viewing training previously, this will be an easy transition into advanced training.

Remote Viewing Today:

Today Remote viewing is a thriving industry no longer limited to just the military. Remote viewing is available to the public sector and is used in every area of life imaginable. From locating your missing wallet to tracking down lost children, private corporations and individuals are hiring remote viewers to accomplish the unimaginable. Now you can learn this new skill too. Go to ProjectJeDi.net to find out how just about anyone, from any walk of life, can develop this amazing tool to find out anything.

I recently stumbled upon these cute crochet creatures called amigurumi.

They are usually crocheted, but sometimes knitted. Characterized by anthropomorphic animals and objects, these small creations fit into the palm of your hand. Amigurumi is a Japanese art and the word translates into English as “knitted stuffed toy”.

My favorite is the Ninja Bunny Minion.

Free Amigurumi Ninja Bunny Minion Pattern

Amigurumi grew in popularity in the early and mid-1990’s. Most have much more charm than even the best Beanie Babies.

Even if you don’t know how to crochet, I think by the end of the day most people that are half decent at making small things with their hands will be able to make a simple creature out of yarn and a few beads if they put their mind to it and have a little bit of patience.